Soon, private layouts may have 10 pc quota for poor

The State government is planning to issue a final notification on reservation of 10 per cent of land in private residential layouts/projects for construction of housing units for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).

Proposed in 2011, as part of the reforms under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM), a notification was prepared by the Urban Development Department (UDD) proposing reservation of 10 per cent of the land in private and public layouts for the construction of EWS or affordable housing projects.

However, due to several issues including opposition by the developers’ lobby, the notification was put in the cold storage.

With the Congress government coming to power on promises of providing affordable housing and making Karnataka ‘slum free,’ the UDD is all set to give the draft notification a final shape and issue a gazette notification in the coming days.

Sources in the UDD said the primary focus of the reservation would be to construct single-bedroom apartments at a cost of Rs eight lakh per unit.

Cross-subsidy

The cost can then be cross-subsidised by utilising the various Central government schemes and the JnNURM funds. At present, unofficially, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is the only agency which is providing affordable housing at the said rate.

It is said that private developers, over the years, while getting project approvals have been showing their ‘social concern’ by incorporating ‘servant quarters’ as part of their initiative towards providing EWS housing.
New notification

However, with the new reservation notification, developers will have to provide a separate area for the EWS project.

Department officials said that the modalities of where these  EWS quarters have to be constructed, whether inside the same campus or a kilometre or two away from the main residential project, are yet to be worked out.

While the actual JnNURM reforms suggest “earmarking 25 per cent of the developed land in all housing projects for EWS/LIG (low income group)” for providing additional funding towards the housing projects, the government is trying to take ‘baby steps’ in bringing the reforms by reserving only 10 per cent.

While ruling out buying the required land from private developers, government officials state that they may not consider sops towards the private developers for constructing the EWS quarters.

Nonetheless, sources in the Housing department said that, in future, exemption from registration fees for these private developers may be considered.

It is said that several meetings over the past two months have been held with industry bodies to discuss the issue and chalk out a viable plan before the final notification is issued. At present, Karnataka has a shortage of 1.2 million affordable housing units.